Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1974 (SND Vol. IX).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1719-1800, 1884
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TYMPANY, n. Also timpany. And reduced forms timpan (n.Sc. 1825 Jam.), tympan. The middle part of the front of a house, raised above the level of the rest of the wall, formed like a gable, and giving an attic apartment in the roof (n.Sc. 1825 Jam.; Abd. 1973). Hence combs. tympany gavel, id. (Mry. 1825 Jam.). See Gavel; tympany room, the room formed by a tympany. [′tɪmpɑni]Slg. 1719 Slg. Burgh Rec. (1889) 162:
When the stone work is finished to be putt on in a plain way without flankers which the tympan would occasion.Sc. 1731 Trans. Cmb. & Wm. Antiq. Soc. LXI. 212:
The jetings on the wings or office houses, particularly those in the midle of each, finish in a timpany.Sc. 1752 Session Papers, Petition J. Finlayson (19 Feb.) 2:
The fore Wall of the Fore-shot was raised into a Timpany or Storm Gavel.Abd. 1780 Aberdeen Jnl. (26 June):
A Tympany Room and a Garret.Sc. 1800 Edb. Advertiser (18 Feb.) 107:
A good room in the tympany, with a closet.Gsw. 1884 Gsw. Past & Present I. 106:
An old house with tympany windows.
